Cine y moda. Por Jean Paul Gaultier is at CaixaForum Barcelona from July 11 until October 23. Co-organised by la Caixa Foundation and La Cinémathèque française, Cine y Moda proposes a polyhedral journey through elements that have marked the history of fashion and the seventh art.
In a kind of artistic yin-yang, cinema and fashion are approached here as two ductile halves of the same circumference. Two artistic expressions that not only complement but also feed off each other. This creative synergy guides the entire exhibition.
From Jean Paul Gaultier’s personal and subjective perspective, Cine y Moda proposes a reflection on the extent of the power of fashion and cinema as drivers of social change, of paradigm shifts… and, above all, as a mirror and/or catalyst of gender archetypes, such as enfant terrible or femme fatale.
With over 100 garments and allusion to over 90 films, in areas as different as pop culture, punk movement, queer identities, we must highlight emblematic visual elements such as Grace Jones in A view to kill (1985) or the corset worn by Madonna in her 1990 tour – designed by Jean Pau Gaultier himself -, as well as the area dedicated to the three major film collaborations between the French creator and award-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Gael García Bernal’s iconic and transgressive dress in La mala educación (2004) is also present and is a piece capable of luring the human eye.
We should also highlight the final installation, recreating the sensorial experience of an haute couture fashion show – a visual motif present in several styles of world cinematographies. A union delicately created by impactful looks and a triptych visual essay that features apotheotic runway shows of some of the most interesting audio-visual works on designers and other creators – among them, the most recent biopic on Jean Paul Gaultier. All adored by an eclectic playlist, with a pace befitting any good runway or voguing ball.
We must add a note, for further consideration, about displaying Sharon Stone’s famous scene in Basic Instinct (1992). Does it make sense to be presented without a contextualising note? In an upcoming exhibition set-up, it could be interesting to make this update.
In short, for fans of Pedro Almodóvar, Elia Kazan, Coco Chanel, Balenciaga, Pierre Cardin, Rossy de Palma and Paco Rabanne, the visit is not mandatory… but almost. Between fabrics, posters, visual essays, and a fitting sountrack, we see a finely tuned orchestration of artistic elements. Cinema and fashion, rather than being back-to-back, are here with joined hands and skins.
For all people intrigued by cinema and interested in the world of fashion as an artistic expression, the rich and impactful exhibition Cine y Moda will not leave the CaixaForum in Barcelona until October 23 this year.
